i made the mistake of telling someone to install imgburn, which is an awesome piece of software on it's own. they called me back and said firefox now has Ask start page and toolbar. luckily they had a restore point and I talked them through the reinstall (and turning off the sounds)

StevenEuler
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2013-09-15T18:13:01Z —
#3

I downloaded a program andI ended up with something call BEE ... I can't remember it's exact name. (This despite checking all the boxes.) Because it is not a virus or malware it cannot be taken care of with antivirus or anti-malware tools, nor will anti-virus protection prevent it, nor will malware prevent. ADWARE I'm told does a good job of getting rid of such redirects; I used ADWARE after the fact and it got rid of the residual registry keys.

I resorted to restoring the search engine to the computer's default, and then restoring my default search engine and home page. But all of the suggestion you made did NOT work.

jeepmanjr80
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2013-09-15T19:03:41Z —
#4

I find it much easier to never allow it to happen in the first place. Just saying.....

jeepmanjr80
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2013-09-15T19:05:30Z —
#5

If you don't/can't read, you deserve what you get. You have options...explore them.

theMike
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2013-09-15T19:45:33Z —
#6

you know you have a reading problem when you miss this part about us being on the phone.

theMike said:

they called me back

Philter
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2013-09-16T03:49:38Z —
#7

I inadvertently installed AVG search bar as part of some freeware download. I tried uninstalling, virus checking, rootkit tracing, everything. I edited the registry file. Nothing worked. Every program crashed. I eventually had to reformat and reinstall. Now I wouldn't trust any product from that outfit. They caused me to have a wasted weekend.

jraju
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2013-09-16T04:21:40Z —
#8

Browser hijack not only dent your system safety. It also dent your MBR which is needed for proper boot. By injecting in to the MBR, whatever you delete by system and registry, it gets back its ugly head thro system restore points and the changed mbr. Hi Philter, you could have saved your self of wasted weekend, had you tried aswmbr.exe , a free program by avast. It allows you to fix mbr and also kill rootkit.Otherwise, by starting installation cd, and in the screen after windows load up, select R and then in the command prompt, enter 1 and pass the password, type fixmbr. Then say yes to the warning, Your mbr infection is set correct and you could get rid of this problem. I get this idea after reading article in mcafee threat analysis. The antiviurs does not touch these browser hijacks , as they are not virus, They are commercial intended program, without user consent. Nowaday programs are bundled with these unwanted programs. Major geek is the best site, which does not allow these kind of bundled offers hidden in their downloads. Even when you click java , it asks for ASK tool bar, if you deselect it carefully , you may escape ask tool bar. There are a couple of program, like babylon tool bar, which is bundled with a user program and it dents your browser completely by annoying with babylon tool, which you never opted. This is even if you use your brain to custom install the program and de select the tool bar. So the best way to avoid is to choose the best secure site like major geeks. Some sites do not mind in giving this unwanted programs free to your computer without your user options. I have answered numerous questions on these browser hijacks and i was affected badly by these browser hijacks even from once trusted site like cnet. Now, when i click reliable websites for download, the link redirects to these sites.

ralphvandenberg
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2013-09-16T09:19:14Z —
#9

I once found a tricky thing when helping clean a friend's computer. Some kind of malware had changed the launch parameters for IE and FF to add their own website. This was confusing at first, because changing the homepage didn't change anything when you first launched the browser.

Joseph2
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2013-09-16T13:24:43Z —
#10

Comcast Xfinity offers a 24/ 7 "HELP DESK" for $14.95@ month. It is "well worth it" AS I have already had to use it 3 times to UNINSTALL UNWANTED MALWARE on my system. This MALWARE will Hijack your browser, then try to EXTORT $125 to "REMOVE IT". The Malware has a Variety of different ways to attach itself to your HARD DRIVE, You don't have to D/L and Install a program to get "INFECTED", and IT won't let You open your browser!!! Some of the most common MALWARE is attached through "third party" software, such as ADD ON'S, TOOLBARS, SEARCH ENGINES, ETC. A COMMON ADD ON IS CALLED "conduit.search.com. Another is called "SWEET TREATS", or "SWEET (SMARTS). I Highly RECOMMEND The XFINITY "help desk", as they take "REMOTE CONTROL ACCESS" of Your Computer, and DELETE THE MALWARE, which sometimes uses an Alias to make it Harder to find.

theMike
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2013-09-16T23:00:06Z —
#11

that can be done here for free

jraju
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2013-12-03T02:11:37Z —
#13

Download malware bytes and then scan your computer. Exhaustive instructions have been given in the site easy to understand. Download avast antivirus and then scan the computer after updating it, and choose boottime scan a boon for the free users from avast and then choose for the first find of trojan, malware etc to " move to chest" 4th no in the menu to what to do with the found virus. The avast boot scan is a command scanner and it kills all the virus at boot stage itself. Then uninstall the browser giving the problem and reinstall. It is no matter of time. Reset the internet explorer by going to the advanced menu in the internet options . Removing the entries after "c:program files\internet explorer/iexplore.exe", by removing https address and closing the iexplore.exe with double quotes